It has long been known that insects are attracted to specific molecules of sex attractants. The isolation of sex and host plant attractant molecules has progressed steadily over the past three decades. The electromagnetic dielectric antennae theory of insect sensing by means of resonating pits was put forth by Grant in 1948 (Grant, G. R. M. The Sensory Pits of Insects Considered As Dielectric Waveguides and Resonators to Infrared Rays. Proceedings of the royal Society of Queensland 60 (8): 89-98, 1948). Callahan elaborated on a similar theory in 1965 (Callahan, P. S., Intermediate and Far Infrared (FIR) Electromagnetic Theory of Communication and Sensing in Moths and Its Relationship to the Limiting Biosphere of the Corn Earworm, Annals of the Entomological Society of America 58 (5): 727-745, 1965), (Callahan, P. S., Far Infrared Emission and Detection by Night Flying Moths, Nature 207 (4989:1173, 1965), (Callahan, P. S., A Photoelectric-photographic Analysis of Flight Behavior in the Corn Earworm Moth, Heliothis Zea, and Other Moths, Annals of the Entomological Society of America 58(2): 159-169, 1965) and presented a theoretical model of the insect spine sensilla as dielectric wave guides and or resonators in the 1 to 30 .mu.m infrared region. He then postulated the emission of narrow band "maserlike" luminescence emissions from sex scents in the intermediate and far IR water vapor windows. Subsequently, he demonstrated with electrophysiological techniques the detection of modulated narrow band electromagnetic energy by an insect antenna. Work continues in the detection of these theorized infrared maserlike emissions in the 2 to 5 .mu.m, 7 to 14 .mu.m, and 17 .mu.m and 26 .mu.m microwindows. A Fourier analysis spectrometer is used to detect and plot the narrow band maserlike emissions and/or reflections.
The theory, method and apparatus were proved out in the laboratory as shown by FIGS. 1, 2, and 3.